There are a variety of known electromagnetic techniques. Geophysical electromagnetic (“EM”) techniques can be effective in determining the electrical conductivity of soils, rocks and other conductive material at depths up to about one kilometer. Conductivity distribution with depth is of great interest in mapping base metals and uranium deposits, aquifers and other geological formations. Geophysical EM methods generally involve generation of a magnetic field by applying a periodic current to a transmitter coil system placed near the earth's surface. This primary magnetic field induces electrical currents in the ground, and the secondary magnetic field produced by these currents is measured to provide information about ground conductivity distributions.
The secondary magnetic field signal may be measured using either a receiver coil system (which can measure up to three orthogonal components of the magnetic field time-derivative dB/dt), or a magnetometer (which measures the magnetic field B). The received analog signal may then be amplified, filtered, and digitized by a high-resolution high-speed analog-to-digital converter (“ADC”), and the data may be stored along with the positioning information obtained from a Global Positioning System (“GPS”). Data post-processing can involve electrical and physical modeling of the ground to generate the geophysical conductivity contour maps.
EM measurements can be done either in the frequency domain or time domain. In frequency-domain electromagnetic (“FDEM”) measurements, the transmitter coil generally continuously transmits an electromagnetic signal at fixed multiple frequencies, while the receiver coil may measure the signal as a function of time. The measured quantities may be either signal amplitude and phase, or equivalently, the in-phase and in-quadrature amplitudes as a function of frequency. The effective EM penetration depth typically decreases with the square-root of both ground conductivity and excitation frequency.
In time-domain electromagnetic (“TDEM”) systems, a pulse of current may be applied to the transmitter coil during an on-period, generating the primary or transmitted EM field, and then switched off during the off:-period, typically at a repetition rate equal to an odd multiple of half of the local power line frequency (50 Hz or 60 Hz). The signal may be measured at the receiver coil as a function of time. The signal amplitude decay during the off-period, combined with modeling of the conductivity and geometry of geological bodies in the ground, may be utilized to yield conductivity contour maps.
EM methods can encompass both ground-based and airborne applications using airplanes and helicopters. Airborne methods may be preferred for large area surveys and have been used for exploration of conductive ore bodies buried in resistive bedrock, geological mapping, hydrogeology, and environmental monitoring. For airborne electromagnetic (“AEM”) systems, the data may be acquired while the airplane or helicopter flies at nearly constant speed (up to 75 m/s or 30 m/s, respectively) along nearly parallel equally-spaced lines (50 m to 200 m) at close to constant height above ground (about 120 m or 30 m, respectively). Measurements can be taken at regular intervals, typically in the range 1 m up to 100 m.
Airplane fixed-wing AEM systems can benefit from the large magnetic dipole moments of their generally large transmitter coils and may be capable of relatively deep investigation of discrete conductors, such as base metals and uranium deposits. Helicopter frequency-domain electromagnetic (“HFEM”) systems can be effective in near-surface mapping, due to the high near-surface resolution, although typically they have limited depth penetration, especially in areas with conductive overburden.
A key drive in the geophysical surveying industry has been to develop helicopter-mounted time-domain electromagnetic (“HTEM”) systems that would combine the strength of AEM and HFEM, as well as take advantage of major improvements in the accuracy of GPS systems, fast high-resolution ADCs, data storage capacities and processing speeds. In designing a HTEM system, the mechanical and electrical hardware key specifications may be generally derived from the end-user requirements. These are: high signal-to-noise ratio (“SNR”), high conductance discrimination, and high spatial resolution both laterally and in depth. High signal-to-noise ration can be accomplished by lowering system noise, or by increasing the signal at the receiver coil. One method of increasing the signal means may be increasing the primary magnetic field.
For a point far away from the transmitter coil, the magnetic field is proportional to the magnetic dipole moment of the coil and inversely proportional to the cube of the distance from the coil. The magnetic dipole moment of a coil is the product N*I*A (e.g. N×I×A), where N is the number of turns, I is the current, and A is the coil area. The inductance of a coil is proportional to N2×D, where N is the number of turns and D is the diameter of the coil. The voltage induced in the receiver coil by a magnetic field B is given by N*A*dB/dt, where the coil sensitivity N*A is the product of the coil number of turns N and the coil area A, and dB/dt is the time-derivative of the magnetic field.
Whenever the survey objective is to map near surface conductivity, a small magnetic dipole moment with fast turn-off may be appropriate, in which case the number of turns in the transmitter coil is generally smaller, thus yielding a reduced magnetic dipole moment and inductance. Conversely, for the detection of conductors at greater depths, it may be desirable to have a longer off-period, and more importantly, to increase the transmitter coil magnetic dipole moment.
Whenever an increase in the magnetic dipole moment may be warranted, it is necessary to increase either the current I, the number of turns N, or the area of the transmitter coil A. The electrical power supply from a single engine helicopter may be limited by the helicopter generator unless an auxiliary power supply is used. In this case, the limiting factor for the amount of current in the transmitter coil is the electrical resistance of the coil and tow cable. For a fixed-length of cable, the power, P, from the helicopter electrical supply is dissipated approximately as the square of the current times the resistance (P=I*I*R). Decreasing the resistance will increase the current by the square root of the decrease. Decreasing the resistance in the loop may be accomplished by heavier gauge wire with its corresponding increase in weight as the electrical resistance is approximately proportional to the length times the resistivity divided by the cross sectional area of the wire. The weight of the transmitter coil is also proportional to the length of the cable, and therefore is proportional to the number of turns N or the square-root of the transmitter coil area A. Since the weight of the transmitter coils increases as the square of the current 1, and linearly with the number of turns N, and as the square root of the area A, for a given towing weight capacity of the helicopter, the most effective way to increase the magnetic dipole moment of the transmitter coil may be to increase the area A, as opposed to increasing the number of turns N or the current I. Another factor to consider when optimizing the transmitter coil I, N, and A is the requirement of a short turn-off time in time-domain measurements, which thus requires a low inductance of the transmitter coil, the inductance being proportional to the square of N and to the square-root of the transmitter coil area.
However, increasing the transmitter coil diameter may reduce aerodynamics and increase drag. Large structures may be stressed during take-off and landing, and therefore there is generally a limit for the size of rigid structures that can be deployed without breaking apart. Reinforcing the structure so that it does not break during take-off and landings may mean an increase in the weight of the structure. Additionally, maintaining the transmitter coil shape during flight can be very important to provide a fixed magnetic dipole moment, in order not to degrade the quality of the measurements. Thus, the requirement for an increased magnetic dipole moment can require careful balancing of all of these factors.
Besides the HTEM system produced by Geotech, named VTEM (“Versatile Time-Domain Electromagnetic”), over the last few years other systems became operational. An example of these transmitter coil and suspension techniques may be found in AeroTEM™ by Aeroquest Ltd., THEM™ by THEM Geophysics Inc., HoisTEM™ by Normandy Exploration Ltd., NewTEM™ by Newmont Mining Corp., ExpIoHEM™ by Anglo American, SkyTEM™ of SkyTEM ApS., and HeliGEOTEM™ of Fulgro Airborne Survey. These other systems have either much smaller transmitters, i.e. AreoTEM™ by Areoquest Ltd., THEM™ by THEM Geophysicis Inc., ExplorHEM™ by Angl American, SkyTEM™ of SkyTEM ApS., and HeliGEOTEM™ of Fugro Airborne Survey, or are not semi-rigid as in HoisTEM™ by Normandy Exploration Ltd., and NewTEM™ by Newmont Mining Corp.
Furthermore, a time-domain electromagnetic system is described by U.S. Pat. No. 7,157, 914 titled “Airborne Electromagnetic Time Domain System, Computer Product and Method”, invented by Edward Beverly Morrison, Petr Valentinovich Kuzmin and Pavel Tishin, filed Nov. 20, 2003 and issued on Jan. 2, 2007. The transmitter coil described in this patent is octagonal, and has an overall flexible frame, not a semi-rigid structure. An overall flexible frame can be difficult to utilize in rugged terrain where it can be broken or damaged during take-off or landing upon uneven ground.
None of the above-referenced systems are able to address the interest in exploring base metals and uranium deposits at depths approaching 1 kilometer. A limitation of the known HTEM systems is that there is no transmitter coil available that simultaneously: offers a large magnetic dipole moment; attains good flight stability; that is light weight; that is compatible with small aircraft, in particular small single-engine helicopters; and is easy to transport, setup and repair in the field.